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Category: mayhem
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Tarot Readings by Sarah Luczko at Quimby’s May 12th
Quimby’s is proud to welcome back tarot readings by Sarah Luczko. Sarah is a poet, dancer, performance artist, bookstore owner, and Tarot reader. Her readings are down to earth, while still keeping one foot in the other world. Sarah works with querents to produce a reading through collaboration with the cards. She embraces the traveling tradition of party readings. She prefers to read in loud bars, outdoors, in a garden, at art openings, or anywhere away from more traditional settings. Follow Space Oddities bookstore & gallery on Instagram: @5paceoddities
Facebook invite for this event is here.
Sunday, May 12th, 1pm-6pm
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Christina Ward presents a thrillingly gruesome slide show talk about 20th Century American food at Quimby’s. (Yes, there will be snacks!)
In Christina Ward’s new book American Advertising Cookbooks-How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam®, Bananas, and Jell-O® (Process Media, a Feral House imprint) is a deeply researched and entertaining survey of American food history; connecting cultural, social, and geopolitical events. Author Christina Ward (Preservation: The Art & Science of Canning, Fermentation, and Dehydration, Process Media, 2017) uses her vast collection of cookbooks to tell the fascinating and often infuriating story of corporate greed and advertising and the manipulation of American cuisine. Academic researchers have published histories of American food and politics, but Ward brings all these elements together to tell the larger story of why we eat what we do. Though easy to mock, once you learn the real history, you will never look at Jell-O® the same way again! American Advertising Cookbooks, How Corporations Taught Us To Love Bananas, Spam®, and Jell-O® features full-color images and essays uncovering the origins of favorite foods.
In this engaging book, readers will learn of the role bananas played in the Iran-Contra scandal, how Sigmund Freud’s nephew decided Carmen Miranda would wear fruit on her head, and how Puritans built an empire on pineapples. American food history is rife with crackpots, do-gooders, con men, and scientists all trying to build a better America-while some were getting rich in the process. Loaded with full-color images, Ward pulls recipes and images from her vast collection of cookbooks and a wide swath of historical advertisements to show the influence of corporations on our food trends. Though easy to mock, once you learn the true history, you will never look at Jell-O the same way again!
“A bizarrely tantalizing read, Christina serves up a feast of fascinating facts about food and cookbooks and shows us how corporations wooed and seduced the American working-class palate.” –Alice Bag, Punk Rock founding goddess and author of Violence Girl-LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story
Christina is a featured contributor to Serious Eats, Edible Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, Remedy Quarterly, and Edible magazines. Christina, despite klutziness, is often found in classrooms and community kitchens with sharp knives, spilling vinegar into unsuspecting handbags while wildly gesticulating as she teaches folks how to make perfect pickles. She is a featured guest food expert on morning television programs and public radio stations across the United States.
For more info: feralhouse.com / info(at)feralhouse(dot)com
Here’s the Facebook invite for this event!
Friday, March 1st, 7 pm – Free Event
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Quimby’s 2018 Zlumber Party 1/27-1/28
Hey zinesters and comics artists! Come to our Zlumber Party (as in Zine Slumber Party)! This is the seventh year in a row we’re inviting you to come in and spend the night with us working on your zine, and start your year off with a creative frenzy! Get here at 9:30 on Sat, Jan 27th (the store closes at 10pm). Then spend the night here! Stay until 6am Sun, Jan 28th! (And yes, you can leave whenever you want before then if you want or need to.) So bring yer jammies and a sleeping bag, then leave in the morning with what you’ve been workin’ on! There will be snacks! And coffee!
What: Zlumber Party 2018!
When: Sat, Jan 27th, 9:30pm – Sun, Jan 28th, 6am
Where: Here at Quimby’s Bookstore at 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago
RSVP: Give us a holler so we have a head count and know how much pizza to order!: info(at)quimbys(dot)com.
Invite your friends with the Facebook invite here.
Helpful hints!
*In terms of what to bring, definitely whatever project you’re working on, whether it’s a zine, a comic, a book, a magazine, an artist book — independent publishing knows no bounds!
*Be here at 9:30pm (the store closes at 10pm). This is NOT a lock in; you can leave whenever you want. You can stay as late as 6am on sunday morning, which is the official end time for the event.
*Wear comfy clothes! Don’t forget your sleeping gear! A sleeping bag if you wanna take a break to catch a few zzzz (or just be comfy), a pillow, footie pajamas, a blanket, slippers…whatever makes you comfy.
*We’ll provide some snacks and coffee, but you may want to bring some snacks with you if you like. A good way to make new friends is bring food, is all we’re saying. If you have food sensitivities or allergies please bring whatever nourishment you need to bring to sustain you.
*We’ll also provide some office supplies (papers, pens, scissors, staplers, that type of thing), chairs and tables.
*One final note: Don’t feel pressured to feel like you have to finish whatever you’re working on before you leave. If you feel excited to work on your project once you’ve been working on it here, that you’ve started your 2018 off jazzed that you got the creative ball rolling, then we’ve done our job (that’s once of the reasons we do this event in January). When you’re all done with your zine and you want to consign it here, we’re excited to sell it for you. More info about consignment here: quimbys.com/consignment
Also, click here for more info about consigning at Quimby’s Bookstore NYC!
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QuimBrew Available For Pre-order!!!
Pre-order QuimBrew by Marz Community Brewing & Quimby’s Bookstore with an awesome label by the amazing Chicago artist Laura Park. Order it from The Beer Temple, and your shipment will come with the Quimby’s oral history zine!
It’s the 25th anniversary of Quimby’s Bookstore, and Marz Community Brewing Co made a beer to celebrate this milestone. Quimbrew is a pale wheat ale with rooibos tea packaged in 500 ML bottle with label art work designed by Laura Park.
This special edition beer is available for pre-purchase at The Beer Temple and comes with the 132 page zine: Ever Evolving Bastion of Freakdom: A Quimby’s Bookstore History in Words and Pictures.
Ever Evolving…is an oral history of the notorious and glorious Quimby’s Bookstore, in the tradition of Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me. The story of the early days of Quimby’s up through today. Pictures, graphics, juice, from employees, shoppers, consignors and artists that have frequented the store’s hallowed doors. This special “ashcan edition” is a limited print run zine to celebrate the store’s silver jubilee, and was created to accompany the Marz Community Brewing Quimbrew beer pre-purchase.
Please note! This pre-order needs to be done at the Beer Temple website here, not at Quimby’s.
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Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Reads From Dr. Mütter’s Marvels 10/4
In Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s new book DR. MÜTTER’S MARVELS (Gotham Books), she explores the previously untold told life story of the man with the famous name: a young, handsome and ambitiously brilliant surgeon whose talents in the operating room and lectures halls were unrivaled in his lifetime. The book delves deep into the life of a man who was truly ahead of his time – from Mütter’s early years as an orphan and time spent studying cutting-edge surgery in Paris, to his struggles to establish himself in Philadelphia amidst the outrageous rivalries among his fellow doctors—many of whom publicly mocked Mütter’s philosophies and innovations (including his devotion to pre- and post-operative care, employing anesthesia, and even the sterilization of his tools).
Although he only lived for 47 years, Mütter’s impact within medicine is still felt, and his legacy lives on with his enormously popular namesake museum. And now, with DR. MÜTTER’S MARVELS, his strange,inspiring and untold story can finally be shared.
“In her deftly crafted narrative, the author provides an absorbing
account of the charismatic surgeon’s life and career as well as a vivid look at the medical practices and prejudices of his time. Aptowicz draws nicely on Mütter’s speeches and lectures to reveal the depth of his empathetic philosophies and humanist approach.” –Kirkus Reviews
The work of Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz has been featured in such places as: Bust Magazine, About.com’s Poetry Channel, and the spoken word anthology Word Warriors. Most recently, she has been awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry and the 2013 Amy Clampitt Residency.
For more info: http://aptowicz.com
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Valentine Trauma Zine Release Party & Reading With Mike McBeardo McPadden and Friends 2/22
90s legends Mike McBeardo McPadden (Happyland) and his inimitable bride, Rachel Shitass McPadden (Saucy), are returning ceremoniously to their beloved motherland, Zine City USA, with the release of Trauma Zine No. 1: Valentine’s Day.Expanding on the concept of their popular 2012-2013 Rock Trauma reading series, quarterly Trauma Zine incorporates personal essays and original art from talents across the country to communicate an empathetically (or just pathetically) tragic theme. And contains stickers.
So napalm another Hallmark-fabricated love (gross) day, then join us the following weekend for complimentary 70%-off Walgreen’s chocolate hearts and brief, cringe-y readings from such Valentine Trauma contributors as: Mike McBeardo McPadden (author Heavy Metal Movies, head writer Mr. Skin), Rachel McPadden (xoJane, Saucy, Self-Hate Crime), Diana Jewell (lovechild of Tura Satana & Oliver Reed), Sarah Rosenfeld (Windy City Rock), Bob Goblin (Outburst on the 66, RockStarClub, Rock Trauma alum), and Jeremy Kitchen (CPL).
May you meet your future ex-wives/husbands that fateful night and forever curse our names.
For more info: traumazine(at)gmail(dot)com
Saturday, February 22nd, 7pm – Free Event
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David Witter reads from Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft & Spectacle 2/15
In David Witter’s new book Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft & Spectacle (The History Press), he keeps track of the shell game of Chicago’s fascinating magic history from its vaudeville circuit to its contemporary resurgence. By the end of America’s “Golden Age of Magic,” Chicago had taken center stage in front of an American audience drawn to the craft by the likes of Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Cashing in on a craze that rivaled big-band mania, magic shops and clubs sprang up everywhere across the Windy City, packed in customers and put down roots. Over the last century, for example, Magic, Inc. has outfitted magicians from Harry Blackstone Sr. to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield. Magic was an integral part of Chicago’s culture, from its earliest venture into live television to the card sharps and hucksters lurking in its amusement parks and pool halls.
David Witter is a Chicago historian and author of the book Oldest Chicago. A native Chicagoan, he attended Louisa May Alcott School (the same grammar school as Marshall Brodien), Lane Technical High School, Columbia College (BA in writing) and Northeastern Illinois University (BA in secondary education). Also a freelance writer and photographer, he is a regular contributor to New City and Fra Noi. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Living Blues, The Best of the Chicago Blues Annual, the Bay Area Music Magazine, the Copley News Syndicate and Lerner Newspapers.
For more info: danielle.raub(at)historypress(dot)net
Click here for Facebook event posting for this event.
Saturday, February 15th, 7pm – Free Event at Quimby’s Bookstore
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Gene Gregorits Reads With Alan Hoffmann 11/8
In Gene Gregorits’ latest, Fishhook (Monastrell Books), he takes a break from his Dog Days series, which has won him a mountain of small press support while also inviting hellish scorn since its emergence last year. Throughout this new volume’s 550 pages, we experience the notorious cult writer and well-known Facebook abuser’s oftentimes hazardous day-to-day life with both humor and a terrifying clinical detachment. Fishhook is the first book of its kind: a literary anthology comprised entirely of status updates. It works as a conceptual coffee table piece, but fans of his novels can investigate this collection as a real life companion to both Dog Days and Johnny Behind the Deuce.The work of Gene Gregorits has been hiding in plain sight for 20 years. His first 2 books, 2002’s Sex & Guts and 2007’s Midnight Mavericks: Reports From The Underground, sold less than 50 copies each, despite heavy marketing, exceptional writing, and one-of-a-kind interviews. He finds the relentless attempts to extinguish him as a writer and force of nature amusing, particularly now that with his own imprint, Monastrell, he has finally managed to discover an intelligent and informed readership that, like him, is none too happy about the current void in American literature. His rapidly growing cult of ne’er do wells, malcontents, and highly literate reprobates seems to be largely based in Chicago, and he is very excited to meet every one of them on November 8th.
Gregorits is coming all the way from Florida for this event; he will be reading from Dog Days Volume Two, Fishhook, and his current work-in-progress, Intra-Coastal: One Year On St. Pete Beach. For more info: www.MonastrellBooks.com“Gene Gregorits is the best and truest writer you have never heard of.” -Lisa Carver, VICE MAGAZINE
Alan Hoffman is a Chicago-based writer-performer who collaborates with musicians (including current-regular ambient accompanist Cinchel) to create dark sonic portraits about human nature. His current project is a recording for late 2013 which includes his own monologues, along with one each by director Christophe Honore and author Dennis Cooper. Alan will read a piece from this recording tonight and will be performing the show in its entirety (with several other local musicians) in the near future.” For more info: http://cinchel.com/
Friday, November 8th, 7pm – Free Event
In honor of Gregoritis’ love for Facebook, we’ll be giving away FREE GRAB BAGS to any customer who can prove that they shared that day’s event and tagged Quimby’s Bookstore. Social media: truly the gift that keeps on giving. Please note: customers must be in the store at the Gregorits in-store appearance to pick up their grab bags.
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Quimby's Bookstore Podcast Episode #8 With Adam Parfrey & Peter Sotos Now Available
This episode is entitled “We’re Having a Good Time With That Goat, Wish You Were Here: Decadence With Adam Parfrey and Peter Sotos.” Feral House publisher Adam Parfrey, talks about his book Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society: A Visual Guide, and controversial local writer Peter Sotos talks about his book Pure Filth.Stream or download this episode and past episodes (it’s free!) on our Podbean site at quimbys.podbean.com.
Or find us on I-Tunes!
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Peter Sotos & Publisher Chip Smith Discuss Controversy in Publishing 3/23
Marking the roughly simultaneous re-release of Peter Sotos’ Tool and Mine, Sotos will appear at Quimby’s Bookstore with his publisher Nine-Banded Books founder, Chip Smith, to discuss the continuing role of independent publishers in curating controversial and overlooked literature.
“Peter Sotos is one of those rare writers who can say, ‘The words I write are me,’ or at least as close as anyone can come to communicating who they are in words.” –Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy against the Human Race
“For this latter-day homo sacer, wounds are not to be healed but poked and worried until they bleed. Sotos is literature’s outcast, carrying stigma like a rat carries plague.” –Mikita Brottman, author of Thirteen Girls
“…among the most important writing being done today.”
–Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled SwarmPeter Sotos is a Chicago-born writer whose work focuses on criminal psychology, sexual abjection, and the myriad aspects of pornography. (He was also an early member of the noise group Whitehouse.) Noted his unique literary style and his frank and insightful engagement with deeply disturbing subjects, Sotos’ writings are considered by many to stand as oblique social criticism. Sotos is the author of 11 published novels, including Index, Tick, Lordotics, Comfort and Critique, and Selfish, Little: The Annotated Lesley Ann Downey. He is also the editor of the Pure Filth, an annotated collection transcripts culled from the underground pornography of the late Jamie Gillis. Sotos’ writing has appeared in ANSWER Me!, Apocalypse Culture II, Funeral Party, and Ritual Sex.
And oh yeah, he often comes in to Quimby’s (always wearing a long coat) with records he bought around the corner at Reckless Records. One time it was a greatest hits from The Smiths, prompting us to fun of him.
For more info: ninebandedbooks.com and quimbys.com
Sat, March 23rd, 7pm – Free Event
